For every reasonable choice (closing down the expensive Galactic Starcruiser hotel), Disney makes a wild one. And today’s is pretty wild: On May 26th, the company will remove dozens of series and specials from both Disney+ and Hulu, including Y: The Last Man, Dollface, Artemis Fowl, Willow, Darby and the Dead, and a whole pile of series and specials aimed at kids.
Deadline has the current list, as well as a quote from CFO Christine McCarthy, which is pure corporate-speak: “We are in the process of reviewing the content on our DTC services to align with the strategic changes in our approach to content curation.”
Disney is just the latest company to pull shows from its streaming platforms; Showtime and AMC+ have both removed series, and in December, HBO Max pulled series including Westworld and The Nevers, both of which made their way to free streamers like Tubi and Roku.
In February, Deadline speculated that Disney could be the next to purge its content library (a terrible term which glosses over the fact that this is work made by people who presumably wanted their work to be seen, not just a pile of “content”). Deadline wrote, “Removing titles may offer attractive write-downs for media companies, but it’s creating plenty of ill will with creatives who have grown frustrated with the underwhelming size of streaming residuals.”
Those residuals are, of course, part of the issue that led to the current writers’ strike.
Y: The Last Man showrunner Eliza Clark said on Twitter:
Well, you work on something for years, pour your heart and soul into it, as do hundreds of other artists. You make it during a global pandemic, far from home. Then it is canceled before it even has a chance to finish airing. Then, it is disappeared… https://t.co/BbttPYWxMH
— Eliza Clark (@TheElizaClark) May 18, 2023
And Phil Hay, a writer on The Mysterious Benedict Society, which was also pulled:
Including THE MYSTERIOUS BENEDICT SOCIETY.
If you’d like to see the beautiful work of hundreds of creative people on the show, try to do so before May 26.
This is today in Hollywood. https://t.co/WuGjjvJSNZ
— Phil Hay (@phillycarly) May 19, 2023
Disney has not said anything about whether the pulled series will be available on free streamers, or anywhere at all. So you’re watching against the clock if you want to see any of these shows: They won’t be available as of May 26th.
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